Critical Analysis
William Ruhlmann calls the song "a cynical, sarcastic treatise on moneygrubbing and the shallow life of the suburbs," saying that it was "primarily inner-directed," and that "the song's defeatist tone demands rejection, but it is also a quintessential statement of its time, the post-Watergate '70s; dire as that might be, you had to admire that kind of honesty, even as it made you wince."
Writing about the songs in the context of its placing as the finale on the album of the same title, Author Peter Ames Carlin noted in 2010 that "tellingly, this is the first JB album to not flirt with holy transcendence in its final grooves." He describes the song as "a tart portrait of society, but unlike, say, Billy Joel (whose simple folk are so often reduced to Davy-in-the-Navy caricatures) JB sees himself right in the middle of the crowd. 'We’ll fill in the missing colors in each others’ paint-by-numbers dreams,' he pledges." Compared to the "sweet, sticky erotica" one might recall Browne singing of with Bonnie Raitt on 1973's 'The Times You’ve Come,' Carlin says "this ain’t it. Not even close:"
'We’re gonna put our dark glasses on
And we’ll make love until our strength is gone,'
And when the morning light comes streaming in'
We’ll get up and do it again. Amen.'
"The life of an idiot, perhaps. But certainly not a happy one," writes Carlin.
Read more about this topic: The Pretender (Jackson Browne Song)
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